The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway: The Book and the Movie

Alyssa Colletti
FYW- 101
Professor Timmons
April 15, 2013

The Old Man and the Sea

Ernest Hemingway was born on July 21, 1899 in Oak Port, Illinois. Throughout his high school career he excelled in sports, and English class. For fun Hemingway enjoyed the outdoors, which got him into fishing and camping. When he graduated he started to work for The Kansas City Star as a junior reporter. Hemingway got his style of writing from the Kansas City Star’s Style Guide for writing: “use short sentences, use short first paragraphs, use vigorous language, and be positive, not negative.” He wrote many books, one of them being The Old Man and the Sea, which was also made into a movie. In both the book and the movie, the message being conveyed was to “Never give up.” They say, “Life is a journey, it’s not where you end up but its how you got there.” (www.motivationalwellbeing.com) Both the book and the movie have similarities and differences. The book was very descriptive in which you were able to imagine and picture in your head what was actually going on. In the beginning of the book, while the Old Man went out to sea again he saw two porpoises, which he considered to be his friends out across the lonely sea. He said as if they were, "playing and making jokes and love with each other. They are our brothers like the flying fish”(Hemingway 44). Also when the bird had landed on his skiff, he told the bird that he needed to be brave, and go before the hawks come. On the other hand the movie followed very closely to the book in which it was almost word for word as the book. The Old Man looked like Hemingway. Logos was shown in the movie by visually getting to see each step that the Old Man took on the boat. The music also helped you predict when something good or bad was going to happen. You were also able to see the boy cry, which is pathos. The messages that Hemingway was trying to convey was perseverance, and to never give up. Hemingway has a unique way of writing. Hemingway’s writing style included short, declarative sentences with the omission of colons, semi-colons, exclamation points, dashes or parentheses. Hemingway wanted his short sentences to build on to each other until they reached a whole storyline. Hemingway also used movie-style techniques such as “cutting from one scene to the next” quickly. His style of writing was called the “Iceberg Theory,” because his facts floated above water, and the supportive details or structures holding up the facts were out of sight. The Old Man has wrinkly skin, young eyes the color of the sea, cuts, and scars on his hands. This helped show us how much he has been through. The scars on his hands represent that he has faced hardships, but he has always gotten through them. The new cuts on his hands show that he has not given up and he is still trying. No matter what you will always fall down, but you’re the only thing stopping yourself from getting right back up and moving forward. Throughout his life, he has been presented with challenges to test his strength and endurance. The marlin with which he struggles for three days represents his greatest challenge. Relentlessly fighting off the sharks over and over again, keeping as much of the marlin that he can savage, until he gets back to land, and not letting any outside forces put him down. The Old Man dreaming about Africa and lions represents him reminiscing on his youth and purity, but is now an elderly man, getting weaker by the day. The boy, who had first gone on the Old Man’s boat when he was five, has been a friend to the old man ever since. The boy would always go fishing with the Old Man, but his parents told their son he was no longer on his boat because he had the worst bad luck and he had not caught a fish in over 80 days. It is as if the boy and the Old Man have switched places by the boy being the caretaker for the Old Man, “the father figure”, and the Old Man being the one who is cared for. Joe DiMaggio also played a role in the storyline even though you never saw him; he was the Old Mans hero. The Old Man worships him as a model of strength and commitment, and his thoughts turn toward DiMaggio whenever he needs to reassure himself of his own strength. Hemingway’s unique style of writing allows readers to easily visualize the plot, as if it was a movie. This is done through short sentences that build on one another. This also allows his books, such as The Old Man and the Sea, to be created into movies that are easily comparable. His use of metaphors and descriptive writing make this possible. Through the use of logos and pathos, Hemingway successfully conveyed the message of perseverance. Over and over again the Old Man was tried, but he never gave up.